welcome in we spend so much of our time much
time yeah so much of our time looking at these
these massive sweeping industry trends right
analyzing data trying to understand the you know
the macro movements of the creative world but
some of the most profound insights you can gather
come from zooming all the way in down to the
micro level exactly zooming all the way in on
a single really compelling artistic journey so
for you listening today we are taking a comprehensive
look at the career trajectory and the, frankly,
highly curated artistic identity of American
singer -songwriter Morgan Saint. Yeah, and our
source material for today gives us a really unique
vantage point for this deep dive. It really does.
We're working from a concentrated Wikipedia profile,
sure, but more importantly, we're analyzing the
rich trail of critical reference points, the
album reviews, and the magazine features that
actually serve as the citations for that profile.
The citations are where the real story is. Exactly.
It's essentially doing like archaeological work
on a pop persona. We're looking at the raw materials
an artist uses to construct their public self.
It's all right there in the citations when you
look closely enough. And the mission for you
today is to uncover how an illustration student
from a small New York town evolved into what
music critics have literally called a, quote,
left of center pop star. And an idol to outsiders.
Yes, an idol to outsiders. It is a really unexpected
pivot moving from a prestigious visual illustration
program into major label synth pop. It's quite
a leap. Huge leap. And the way she has built
her world is just a fascinating case study in
modern branding. We're going to break down the
actual mechanics of crafting that unique artistic
persona. Right. The goal is for you to consider.
How these strategies, you know, deliberate visual
signaling, niche audience building, and strategic
patience might actually apply to how you present
your own creative project. Or your own business.
Yeah, or your business to the world. Because
crafting an identity is an art form, and Morgan
Saint's trajectory provides a very, very clear
blueprint. Okay, let's unpack this. The foundation
of this story actually starts outside the traditional
music industry hubs. Right, geographically speaking.
Yeah. Born in 1997. Her real name is Morgan Gildersleeve.
She hails from Mattatech, New York. Out in Suffolk
County. Right, Suffolk County on Long Island.
And growing up there, it gave her a degree of
separation from the noise and the immediate trend
cycle of the city. And that geographic isolation
is often a crucial incubator for creative development.
How so? Well, when an artist is somewhat removed
from the absolute epicenter of the industry during
their formative years, they have the quiet space.
required to cultivate something wholly their
own. Oh, instead of just copying whatever is
trendy down the street. Exactly. Rather than
just mirroring whatever is currently dominating
the local scene, they build an internal world.
Her next step, however, is where the real foundation
of her specific brand is laid. The college years.
Right. The sources note she went on to graduate
from the Parsons School of Design in New York
City. Which is incredibly prestigious. Highly
prestigious. But the key detail here is her major.
She majored in illustration. See, that detail
right there is the skeleton key to understanding
her entire career. It really is. An illustration
degree from Parsons for someone who is going
to become a major label synth pop artist. I mean,
it completely reframes how you look at her work.
It changes the whole context. It clearly bled
into how she introduced herself to the public.
There is a specific reference in the sources
to a 2017 feature in Vogue magazine. A huge deal
for a debut artist. Massive. just highlight her
music they specifically pointed out her quote
provocative mullet haircut yeah and the undeniable
connection between her visual arts degree and
her physical aesthetic that is the actual engine
of her early success explain that connection
a bit more in the modern music industry Having
a compelling voice or a structurally perfect
pop song is rarely enough to break through the
sheer volume of daily uploads anymore. There's
just too much noise. Way too much noise. Tens
of thousands of songs a day. The musicians who
build lasting careers are the ones who construct
a comprehensive visual and sonic world for their
listeners to inhabit. And an illustration major
is uniquely equipped for that. Perfectly equipped.
They are trained to tell a complete, compelling
story through visual mediums. They understand
color theory. They understand composition. They
know exactly how to evoke a specific emotional
response before a single word is spoken or sung.
It's brilliant branding. But do you think coming
out of a visual arts background gave her an unfair
advantage over artists who solely focus on the
audio? Or does it risk making the music secondary
to the image? I don't think it makes the music
secondary at all. It acts as a translation layer.
A translation layer. Yes. When she steps out
with a provocative mullet that gets the attention
of Vogue right at her debut, that is an illustrator
using her own image as the canvas. Ah, I see.
She is visually signaling to the audience exactly
who she is and what her music is going to sound
like before you even press play. Because a mullet
in 2017 wasn't the ubiquitous trend it became
later on. Not at all. It was a deliberate sharp
divergence from the polished symmetrical aesthetic
expected of a new female pop signee at that time.
It told the listener to expect something unconventional.
Exactly. She is basically illustrating her own
pop star persona in real time. And that deliberate
signaling worked. It really worked because her
breakthrough happened with incredible velocity.
Very fast. Moving into that 2017 to 2018 era,
she gets signed to Epic Records. A major label.
Yep. She drops her debut EP titled 17 Hero in
2017 and then follows it up incredibly rapidly
with her second EP titled Alien in 2018. Which
featured the track On Fire. Right, On Fire. The
momentum of those two years is just wild to look
at. The momentum of those releases reveals a
highly aggressive strategy from Epic Records.
Because keeping attention is hard. Maintaining
attention after a debut is one of the notoriously
difficult challenges for any new artist. The
label clearly saw a fully realized vision that
they wanted to push into the market quickly.
Capitalizing on the visual intrigue she had already
established with the Vogue piece and the look.
Precisely. And the market responded immediately.
The sources indicate she achieved millions of
streams. Out of the gate. Out of the gate. And
received highly positive reviews. And the specific
language the critics used, it perfectly aligns
with that visual identity we just analyzed. The
reviews are very telling. They really are. The
publication idolater reviewed the Alien EP and
called it an, quote, otherworldly synth pop adventure.
Otherworldly. Yeah. And then Ones to Watch dubbed
her the, quote, left of center pop star of your
dreams and an idol to outsiders. What's fascinating
here is how those critical labels function strategically.
The left of center stuff. Right. Left of center
and idol to outsiders. Yeah. How those function
within mainstream pop music is really interesting.
Pop music, by its very definition, historically
aims for the absolute broadest denominator. The
middle of the road. It wants to be palatable
to everyone in a grocery store or a waiting room.
But carving out a niche on the margins, that
is how you build an invulnerable foundation today.
Because you aren't fighting with everyone else
for the exact center. Exactly. When an artist
is dubbed an idol to outsiders, it indicates
they are actively rejecting the middle of the
road. Because when a listener feels like an outsider...
and an artist speaks directly to that isolation,
the relationship moves past casual listening.
It becomes deeply personal. They bond with the
artist, they defend the artist, they become a
community. By naming an EP alien, by sporting
a look that defies conventional pop expectations,
and by leaning into a synth -pop sound critics
call otherworldly, she is sending out a very
specific beacon. A beacon for her people. Yes.
This is a vital lesson for you in audience building,
regardless of your industry. If you try to be
for everyone, you risk being for no one. Oh,
that's a great point. By actively choosing to
be left of center, you invite a level of devotion
that a mass market generalized brand simply cannot
generate. And to cap off that era, she hit a
major live milestone by opening for the established
electronic duo Goldfrapp on their national tour,
which serves as the perfect live action reinforcement
of that brand. Totally. Goldfrapp has commanded
that ethereal electronic space for years. So
opening for them isn't just about getting in
front of a crowd. It's a cosign. It is a cosign
from the royalty of the genre. It tells the industry
exactly which lineage Morgan Saint belongs to.
It is brilliant contextual curation by her team.
Right. You place an artist who calls herself
an alien in front of an audience that already
worships otherworldly synth pop, and the conversion
rate of casual listeners to hardcore fans is
going to be exceptionally high. You are preaching
to the exact right choir. Exactly. Now, here's
where it gets really interesting. Okay. After
establishing herself as this otherworldly idol
to outsiders with a highly armored sonic and
visual identity, the narrative takes a noticeable
shift inward. A very distinct pivot. In July
of 2020, she released an EP titled Help. And
the sources explicitly describe this release
as, quote, her most personal project yet. That
phrase is a significant pivot point in any creative
trajectory. The most personal project phrase.
Yes. And artists will frequently use their debut
era to construct a highly stylized, almost defensive
persona. Like the alien. Right. The alien or
the outsider is a protective shell. It allows
them to navigate the brutal music industry without
exposing their core self to criticism. Oh, that
makes so much sense. If they criticize the alien,
they aren't criticizing the real Morgan. Precisely.
But as they mature and secure their footing,
that armor naturally starts to come off. The
art transitions from external world building
to internal excavation. And that internal excavation
led directly to a massive cinematic milestone
for her. The sync placement. Yeah. The title
track of that 2020 EP, H .E .L .P., was featured
in the movie Songbird. Which was a major production.
Starring K .J. Apa and Sophia Carson. She leaped
right from the new left -of -center touring stage
onto the silver screen. Landing a major film
sync like that is a powerful mechanism for expanding
an art. But the correlation here is what you
should really pay attention to. Which correlation?
The fact that it was her most personal project
yet that landed the major placement. Oh, right.
Not the otherworldly stuff. Right. There is a
deep psychological truth in that progression.
Often the more hyper -specific, vulnerable, and
personal you are in your art, the more universally
applicable it becomes to other mediums. That
is so true. By dropping the alien persona and
releasing a project literally titled Help, she
connected on a much broader mainstream level.
It is a beautiful paradox for anyone making art
or building a brand today. It really is. The
human element, the raw vulnerability, is exactly
what a music supervisor for a film needs to soundtrack
a big emotional narrative moment. When you are
watching a narrative film, the music needs to
anchor the human emotion of the scene. Right.
A detached, otherworldly synth pop track might
sound really cool, but it doesn't necessarily
drive emotional resonance on screen. It doesn't
make you cry in the theater. Exactly. The left
of center aesthetics get you noticed by the critics
in 2018. But the raw personal vulnerability gets
your song placed in a film with KJ Apa in 2020.
It demonstrates a striking maturation of her
artistic identity. She's moving from pure concept
to pure emotion. A huge step forward. Which brings
us right to the present day. And it requires
a massive leap forward in the timeline. The sources
take us to January 2025. A significant jump.
Huge jump. This is the release of her current
LP, titled Out of the Blue. Her current era.
Yes. It features singles like the title track
Out of the Blue and a song called 15 Forever.
And to really give us a sense of her headspace
in this current era, there is a piece from Paper
Magazine covering her right now. What's the headline?
The title of their feature is, quote, Morgan
Saint Wants to Make Love Last. Wow. Yeah. So
what does this all mean? We are looking at a
nearly five year gap between her 2020 EP Help
and this 2025 LP Out of the Blue. In the modern
streaming economy, a five year gap between projects
is practically a lifetime. It's an eternity.
The industry moves at a relentless pace and algorithms
absolutely punish inactivity. They zero you out.
Surviving a hiatus of that length while still
releasing on a major label like Epic Records
requires an immense amount of strategic patience.
It suggests that this wasn't just idle time,
right? No, it suggests a period of profound artistic
restructuring behind the scenes. It also requires
an incredible amount of faith from the label
to keep an artist on the roster for half a decade
without a major release. If we connect this to
the bigger picture, the language we've tracked
from the sources reveals the scope of that restructuring.
Let's map it out. We started with a debut titled
17 Hero. We moved to being an alien, then a plea
for help. And now we arrive at a single titled
15 Forever. supported by a magazine profile declaring
she wants to make love last. The thematic contrast
is wild when you map it out like that. It really
is. It journeys from this isolated, defensive
aesthetic into something deeply grounded in human
connection, longevity, and time. There is a deeply
embedded theme of youth, the passage of time,
and nostalgia running through all these titles.
From 17 to 15. Right. Going from 17 hero at the
genesis of her career to looking back with a
song called 15 Forever eight years later is a
fascinating psychological arc. It really makes
you think about how artists process time. It
encourages you to analyze how artists process
their own aging. Within an industry that is frankly
obsessed with youth. Oh, heavily obsessed. The
outsider persona is frequently rooted in the
immediate angst of being young and feeling misunderstood.
But you can't be that forever. No. As an artist
ages, the focus inevitably shifts toward preservation.
The underlying question changes from, how do
I rebel against the world? To, how do I hold
on to these feelings? How do I make love last?
She has seemingly arrived at a place where she
doesn't need the alien moniker to define her
anymore. She's outgrown the armor. The title
Out of the Blue itself suggests a sudden clarity
or something arriving unexpectedly after a long
period of quiet reflection. It makes you wonder
how the illustration student from Matatuck views
the metamorphosis she's undergone. It speaks
volumes about the life cycle of a creative career.
It really does. For you listening, it is a reminder
that your brand or your artistic output must
be allowed to evolve. You can't stay stagnant.
The Morgan Saint of 2017, armed with a provocative
mullet and otherworldly synth pop. was exactly
the disruptor she needed to be to break through
the noise. She needed that to get in the door.
But the Morgan Saint of 2025, singing about nostalgia
and making love last, is who she needs to be
to endure. Attempting to artificially sustain
the angst of your debut era usually results in
stagnation. Endurance is the defining metric
here. Absolutely. To recap the incredible journey
we've just tracked. We started with Morgan Gildersleeve,
a young woman from the quiet town of Matatuck.
We watched her go to Parsons, utilizing an illustration
major to effectively design her own striking
visual identity, complete with that iconic, vogue
-recognized aesthetic. Setting the stage perfectly.
We saw her leverage that into a major label deal
with Epic Records, creating an otherworldly synth
-pop sound that earned millions of streams and
crowned her an idol to outsiders. A very specific
niche. We witnessed the transition. into vulnerability
with a personal project that landed her a major
film placement in Songbird. And finally, we tracked
her through a massive five -year industry gap,
leading to a mature, patient 2025 LP focused
on nostalgia and lasting love. The fusion of
visual art and music didn't just coexist for
her. They combined to create a deeply resonant
brand that evolved exactly as she did. As we
wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you with
a final lingering question to turn over in your
own mind, based entirely on the trajectory we've
seen in these sources. What's the question? If
an artist's earliest foundational projects are
built entirely around the identity of being an
alien or an outsider, and their later, more mature
work shifts toward universal themes of nostalgia,
like 15 Forever, and the deeply human desire
to make love last. Wow. That is a brilliant question
to end on and something for all of you to mull
over today. Thank you so much for joining us
on this deep dive. We loved unpacking this with
you. And we invite you to keep exploring these
ideas in your own worlds. Until next time.